Central Bucks School District

Writing Research Papers


II.F. THE WORKING THESIS

     Now that you have done your preliminary reading and narrowed your topic with research, ask yourself, “What is the most important thing that I have discovered about my topic?” and “What is the answer to my original question?”  The answer to these questions will provide you with your first possible thesis.  If the paper is to be more than a hodgepodge (or cut and paste) of facts and other people’s ideas, it must make this controlling idea or statement.  Check with your teacher at this point to make sure you are heading in a productive direction.  Your working thesis is very important because it will help you organize all your information around one controlling idea.

    The working thesis is a single statement-- not a question.  This working thesis helps you:

  1.  Discover what you want to prove
  2.  Guide your research
  3.  Direct your note taking
  4.  Guide your working outline
 
    Sample Working Thesis Statements
    The working theses below are possible answers to the research questions posed on page II.H.
1. The Puritans left England mainly for religious reasons.
2. Odysseus’s adventures showed him to have characteristics of the mythological hero.
3. The stops on the Underground Railroad in Bucks County were important because of geography.
4. Many of William Faulkner’s short stories illustrate racial strife.
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